Below is a transcript from the post-race news conference of Milorad Cavic, who everyone calls Mike. You’ll recall that one day earlier, after the semifinal, Cavic was the guy who said swimming would be better off if Michael Phelps lost a race.

This is posted without judgment or opinion from me, except to say that it was probably the best news conference we saw all week. He dropped a small bomb at the end and then left the dais smiling.

Losing by one one-hundredth of a second is the most difficult loss, especially at the Olympics. And I did see the replays, but if you are asking that I’m disappointed? It’s a complete miracle to me that I am here, and I retired a year and a half ago and I came back to swimming thinking I wasn’t good enough to compete at this level and at this competition. I’m enjoying this. From my heart, I am really enjoying this moment. I wish I was a gold medalist, but you know I’ll take a silver medal. I’m very comfortable with this.

Is your coach filing a protest, do you know, and what did you think when you saw the replay?

Yeah, I saw the replay a few minutes ago, after my race of course. I overheard something about there being a protest filed, but again I’m not thinking about this. For me it’s just an incredible feat to have come this far and to win this medal. I can’t even take it off myself, don’t know when I can take it off. You know, if you ask me, I’m not about fighting it. If eventually they do decide in my favor, that's great, but I did see the tape – it was kind of hard to see. I know I had a long finish and Michael Phelps had a short finish. That’s all I’m gonna say about that. I’m not angry. I’m not angry at all.

In your experience, is there any way they could have messed this up? Could you have won the race and some how it didn’t record it?

As we all know, technology is also imperfect. It’s possible. It’s not something I’m focused on right now. Sorry I can’t elaborate more on that. It’s possible. Everything’s possible. You know, the hand is quicker than the eye, I suppose. But in super-slow motion and I overheard Michael Phelps talk about how Mark Schubert went into the video room and they were filming it to the thousandth of a second, and he said it was crazy. It was just a crazy finish. It’s too bad that we both couldn’t have finished at 50.58. I would have loved to share that gold medal, but I’m taking what I got and I’m happy.

Can you with your hands or fingers can you maybe show us what a finish of one one-hundredth of a second would be? Can you give us a rough idea if it was one one-hundredth in favor of Michael Phelps, what would it be?

It could be anything, maybe perhaps shaving your fingers. I got a funny story right before I walked over to, or right after my warm up actually, my coach Mike Bottom walked over with some clippers and he cleaned up the back of my neck. He just shaved the hairs that, you know, were below my cap, just behind my neck. Who knows, if he didn’t do that it might have been 50.60. These sort of differences, everything counts. Again, with one-hundredth of a second, something you can’t show is just that fast. If it was a Formula 1 race, perhaps they could show this since they count thousandths of a second.

Could you just go through the last 15 meters and kind of what was going through your mind? Did you have an eye on him? Just take us through those details.

I knew I was leading the race, I usually do, and I’ve been training all year. I know I’m fast the first 50. I knew I was gonna lead the first 50 and I know that Michael’s a back-half swimmer and that he was gonna be chasing me down in the end. So, the last 15 meters, there was just no point to look over. I knew he was there. Just from my recollection, I don’t actually remember looking, I just saw a shadow out of the side of my goggles, and I knew he was coming. It’s a good thing for myself because I like to be chased. When I know someone is chasing me I always seem to give a little bit extra. The last 15 meters, especially the last eight, I just put my head down and I did not breathe the last eight meters. I was just hoping for the best.  

How do you feel [so close to beating] Phelps?

Perhaps I was the only guy at this competition who had a real shot at beating Phelps one-on-one. This is completely new to me, I’ve never been in such a position with so much pressure, and I am very proud of how I handled that whole race and how I was able to keep myself under control emotionally and the stress level. It is a frightening thing to know that you’re racing Michael Phelps. But I think that it’s even more frightening to know that it’s going to be a very, very close race and that nobody knows the outcome.

I knew a lot of people -- I read a lot of articles online, I like to read it, it encourages me -- and I knew a lot of people had their money against me. That was totally understandable. Michael has been breaking world records here by seconds. This is something that no other swimmer in swimming really does, so what do you expect from a man who break world records by seconds in the 100 fly? You know, I expected that he’d go a world-record time – maybe something close, like 50.2. But it was a real honor for me to be able to race with Michael Phelps and be in this situation where all eyes were on me as the one man that would possibly be able to do it. It was just great.

Pieter van den Hoogenband talked to me yesterday and I told him "Pieter, this is pretty stressful, I’m scared, I don’t know what to expect," and he just said, "Just enjoy the experience, just have fun, and don’t get too nervous. This is a beautiful thing." Just hearing this from a legend, such as Pieter, it really kind of calmed me down, and I was like, "He’s right, the best races I’ve swum, I’ve swum when I was relaxed." I believe I just did that here.

At the beginning of the race, can you take us through your head? You and Mike were facing each other at the blocks. Was there, on your part, any sort of stare down going on or what was going on in your mind? What were your mindsets, your preparation as you were preparing to race?

I definitely wasn’t staring him down. I was just trying to control my energy. The energy that goes through your body, especially your mind right before a race is pretty tremendous. But, if you’re asking me this directly, both of us have metallic goggles, so I couldn’t see his eyes and he couldn’t see mine. Maybe he was able to see the reflection of himself and he’s like "Hey, I look pretty good." I saw myself in his reflection and was keeping things under control.

I know you are very happy with what you did -- your best performance, your personal best is always what you rank yourself with -- but could you tell me what you would tell me if Serbian Olympic officials came to you and discussed this issue of possibly appealing? What would your suggestions to them be? What would you say to them?

If it was up to me right now, I would just drop the protest. I’m stoked with what happened. I’m very, very happy. I don’t want to fight this. It is a gold medal at stake. It is a difficult thing to lose, but you have to understand that I came into this competition with a goal to win a bronze medal. I went my best time, and I did better than bronze – I got silver, and I almost got gold. For me to end my career right now, if this is what I decide to do, I will be completely happy.

You know, people will be asking me this for years, and I am sure people will be bringing this up for years saying that, "You won that race." Well, you know, this is just what the results showed. This is what the electronic board showed. I guess I kind of have mixed emotions about it. You know, this could be the kind of thing where, if I had lost by a tenth of a second or two-tenths of a second, I could probably be a lot cooler about this. But with a hundredth of a second I’ll have a lot more people really saying, you know, "You won that race." That kind of makes me feel good, but I’m gonna be happy with where I am.

In your mind, was Michael Phelps the gold medal winner?

Uh, is Michael Phelps the gold medal winner? He… I think if we got to do this again, I’d win.